This is the old idea that the best way to attract romantic interest is by "playing hard to get" because of course "the chase" is an important part of romance. Traditionally used by women to attract men, and "let them think they are in control."

Examples:

An Israeli commercial for an upscale hotel in The Nineties featured a man trying to get his girlfriend to marry him, but she keeps telling him to ‘make an effort’. He buys her a large bouquet, then gradually ups the ante, finally getting her a car, before getting them both a vacation in the advertised hotel. She is pleased and asks him to marry her, but then he tells her to ‘make an effort’.

Bleach: Despite the quote above, Orihime didn't mean to play hard to get. When Ichigo offered to walk her home, she was surprised and told him it wasn't necessary. As the quote reveals, he let it go. She regretted the event right away.

Shampoo does this to Ranma in The Reversal Jewel segment (though this is due to said reversal jewel and not any planning on Shampoo's part). Ranma falls for it, not because of the lure of the chase, but rather because his massive ego can't stand the thought of losing part of his harem, even though the harem is most definitely unwanted and eliminating Shampoo as a suitor would simplify his Love Dodecahedron. Fortunately, Akane engineers a Snap Back before anything serious happens.

In the Sleep Incense arc of the manga, Akane has a dream where she's a princess and Ranma is a knight. After he rescues her from the unwanted harem and pledges his loyalty to her, he pulls her down for some passionate love-making. Smiling widely, she socks him in the face, then tells him, "Oh, Sir Ranma. You must not be so forward!"

Kyoko of Maison Ikkoku seems to attract men this way, (unintentionally), as she is still grieving for her dead husband, yet the men in her life insist on turning down other attractive and willing women for the opportunity to be rejected again and again.

Happens to her two suitors as well, Shun Mitaka attracts Asuna (and Akemi to some extent) while Godai attracts Kozue and Yagami. Of course, they are both really after Kyoko.

Major Motoko "likes to jump off buildings" Kusanagi does this to Batou, partly because she is The Stoic and highly professional in her work. What? You're not following the subtle romantic subplot in Ghost in the Shell? Didn't you catch it when it came up, uh, twice over 26 episodes?

In Ah! My Goddess, Aoshima says Belldandy is doing this when she refuses his sexual advances and says that he thought she wanted him. She tells him she never meant that which causes him to get angry and attempt to rape her. Thankfully, she manages to get away.

Yuugen Kaisha: Ayaka is well aware of Karino's feelings for her and knows he's a good guy at heart. Even so, she doesn't make it easy for him and switches from flirting one moment, to ignoring him the next. Still, she almost confesses her feelings for him at the end... until Karino blew it by staring at her boobs when her top popped open, due to Clothing Damage from her duel with Mukyo.

Conversely, The Game recommends the same thing to men (see real life entry below).

In The Shadow of His Wings, Rui Ravenstone tells Lukan Barra there's a shore bird in her native land whose courtship behavior involves a tug of war. Lukan realizes what she's hinting, but says he's not willing to "pull" because he has more important concerns just then. Later, she announces she's giving up on him ... but then comes back to rescue him, and whispers between kisses, "Why'd you have to pull so hard?" A subversion, really, because Lukan genuinely didn't think he was playing at all, "hard to get" or otherwise.

Subverted in Ink: Donna tried to attract a guy she liked by playing hard to get, but that just made him quickly lose interest. They got together when she was forward with him.

In a non-romantic example, Vala in Stargate SG-1 suggested Mitchell play "hard to get" when he's trying to convince the ex-members of SG-1 to rejoin. Mitchell's response? "'Look who's talking!" It does eventually work, though.

In Friends, Rachel plays hard to get with Joshua and with Danny. When Danny misinterprets this and introduces her to one of his friends, she thinks he's playing hard to get.

Joey suggests this to Ross when they find out Emily is interested in someone else.

Ross: She already lives in London. Joey: ...So you go to Tokyo!

Star Trek: Voyager. Q is trying to seduce Captain Janeway, but for some reason this scrawny human biped is resisting his natural awesomeness.

Q: Oh I see! This is one of those silly human rituals. You're playing hard to get! Janeway: As far as you're concerned, I'm impossible to get.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy plays it cool a couple of times when Angel asks her out for coffee, but then has to explain what she's doing as, being a vampire, it's been several centuries since he last dated a girl.

Newspaper Comics

In one strip of Beetle Bailey, Sgt. Louis Lugg despairs at catching Sgt. Snorkel's romantic attention. Somebody advises her to "play hard-to-get". Lugg decides the best way to do this is to call enticingly to Snorkel from the top of a barracks roof.

In Gunnerkrigg Court the trope is discussed in the "Annie in the forest" arc (originally print-only) as a way of telling Annie how to snag someone she likes. Annie later (in-universe chronologically, said strip was published earlier) tries pulling the routine on Jack, only to have it backfire when the person takes her rather blunt dismissal at face value and reveals a romantic interest in someone else.

"Something strange happened. After calling once, he didn’t call again. And every day without him calling her, her opinion of him swayed ever so slightly. By about day 3 she was talking about how “maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.” On day 4 he was suddenly cute. On day 5 my roommate wanted to f*ck him."

Pepe Le Pew thinks this is what his crush is doing. She's actually just running away.

In an episode of American Dad!, a Carmen Electra Expy ends up pursuing Steve because he's actually making her work for it (insisting on seeing her medical records, making her remove her breast implants). She gets killed in a freak accident immediately after she and Steve are about to get together.

Word of God states that Lila from Hey Arnold! was doing just this due to to some unresolved sexual tension connected to her suppressed darker side.

In the Ed, Edd n Eddy episode "A Twist Of Ed" while the Eds are practicing reverse psychology on the Kankers Eddy demands that they quit playing hard to get.

In the Tom and Jerry episode "Flirty Birdy" Tom dresses up as a female eagle so he can capture Jerry from a male eagle and pretends to act like this to entice the male eagle.

Cornerstone of the "Seduction Community" tips and tactics they give to men that want to be more successful with women, the argument most commonly used is "Women want guys who pose a challenge", and they claim that this is specially true for very attractive women, as opposed to a guy who is open and forward about his feelings which in case will be taken for granted and any interest in him will quickly vanish. How effective, let alone coldly manipulative, these tactics are is open to debate, and that's all what is going to be said about it here.

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